Councilman Fine After Missing Persons Scare

OCEAN CITY – After an early morning missing persons report was filed on his behalf last week, Ocean City Councilman Joe Hall turned up safe, although it remains uncertain just where he was at the time or what he was doing.

Shortly before 2 a.m. last Wednesday, Ocean City police received a call concerning the whereabouts of Hall, who had not been seen or heard from by his wife since earlier on Tuesday.

Ocean City police initiated a missing persons investigation and attempted to contact the councilman to no avail until he reported in safe and sound several hours later.

It’s important to note it isn’t public knowledge where or what a town elected official does in his or her spare time, but a missing persons report filed on a Ocean City councilman certainly raised concerns.

“Obviously, we were concerned,” said OCPD spokesman Mike Levy. “Any time we get a report of a missing person, we take that very seriously.”

Levy said the initial call came in around 1:57 a.m. last Wednesday and set in motion the typical protocol for a missing persons report.

“We investigated it and tried to make contact with him,” said. “He called some time after 4 a.m. and assured us he was okay. We handled it just like we would any other missing person report. After hearing from him that he was okay, the investigation was over from our standpoint.”

For his part, Hall said his wife did not initiate the call, but rather a family friend who was helping her in trying to locate him. Hall said a recent health scare likely heightened his wife’s level of concern.

“Last Tuesday night, I was out of touch with my wife for a period of time and when she expressed concern about my whereabouts, somebody called the Ocean City police on her behalf to have the police look into it,” he said. “About two months ago, I had an incident where I fainted and that only exacerbated her concerns.”

Hall said he talks constantly with his wife throughout the day and when he couldn’t be reached early in the morning, she grew more and more concerned about his well-being. Hall said he was somewhat surprised to learn a search had been initiated.

“Early in the morning, I saw that I had missed calls and a missed message from a police detective,” he said. “I called communications and let them know I was okay, then I called my wife and did the same.”

Hall said the OCPD receives dozens of calls about missing persons and welfare checks.

“My understanding is they responded to me the same way they do everybody else,” he said. “That’s a great thing and something we as taxpayers can be very proud of.”

Featured Stories

SALISBURY – The Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore raised more than $88,000 during its second annual “Shore Gives More” campaign. The foundation’s online campaign allowed individuals to find charities from Worcester, Wicomico and Somerset counties and give them the opportunity to donate on one site. “The Community Foundation serves a diverse audience of organizations,”… Read more »

OCEAN CITY — New regulations prohibiting bow-riding on vessels could be in place as soon as next spring after a productive meeting last week between the area’s representatives in Annapolis and state boating officials. In the wake of several serious boating accidents in the resort last summer, including a fatal propeller strike that claimed the… Read more »

OCEAN CITY — Roughly nine miles off the coast of Ocean City, a quiet memorial and final resting place of a beloved long-time resort local, who passed a year ago this month, is now symbolically teeming with life as part of growing artificial reef site. Tony Meredith, known reverently and affectionately as “Uncle Tony” by… Read more »

OCEAN CITY — Calling a potential designation of the offshore Baltimore Canyon as the nation’s first Urban National Marine Sanctuary potentially “devastating” to the multi-million dollar fishing industry, resort officials this week agreed to send a letter of opposition to state and federal representatives. In October, National Aquarium officials announced they were seeking an Urban… Read more »